Vice President Kamala Harris is hardening her stance on illegal immigration by standing up to hardline Donald Trump, reports "Reuters".
The campaign plans to promote Harris' support for a bipartisan border security bill — defeated in the Senate in February after Trump came out against it — that would increase funding for border agents and detention centers, an official said.
Harris's more combative approach to immigration is expected to be on display as she campaigns across the country alongside her running mate Tim Waltz, the governor of Minnesota.
Harris will also highlight Trump's most controversial actions, such as his 2018 policy that separated thousands of migrant families at the US-Mexico border and a 2017 executive order that sought to ban travel from certain Muslim-majority countries. A version of the ban was upheld by the Supreme Court a year later.
A campaign official said Harris had a chance to reintroduce herself to voters after becoming the Democratic presidential nominee following US President Joe Biden's withdrawal from the race last month.
"This is all part of a larger effort by Harris to be direct and target Trump," said Matt Barreto, a pollster who has worked with the Harris and Biden campaigns. "Democrats always do well when they lean into the immigration issue and don't run away from it."
The first law enforcement position is a departure from Biden's 2020 campaign, when he promised a more humane approach to immigration than Trump. Biden has gradually hardened his approach to increasing illegal immigration.
The Trump campaign tried to blame Harris for illegal immigration, calling her a failed "border czar," even though her portfolio was focused on the causes of Central American migration.
Harris began laying out his new, more combative strategy in a speech in Atlanta last week, criticizing Trump for helping defeat the border security bill.
She also highlighted her actions in border-related prosecutions as California attorney general "I prosecuted transnational gangs, drug cartels and human traffickers who entered our country illegally," she said. "I pursued them case after case and won."
Harris put the border security bill at the center of his platform, and a digital campaign ad cast the election as a choice between "who will fix our broken immigration system. And the one who tries to stop her".
Numerous polls show voters have become more concerned about high levels of illegal immigration under Biden. In a Reuters/Ipsos poll in May, about 45 percent of registered voters said immigration has made life harder for native-born Americans.
Illegal crossings have plummeted since Biden issued new asylum restrictions at the border in June.